Israel begins mapping out West Bank land for annexation after election

Netanyahu: “We’ve been waiting since 1967, and people are making a big deal over a few weeks.”

By LAHAV HARKOV
A general view shows the Israeli settlement of Beitar Illit in the West Bank April 7, 2019 (photo credit: RONEN ZVULUN / REUTERS)
A general view shows the Israeli settlement of Beitar Illit in the West Bank April 7, 2019
(photo credit: RONEN ZVULUN / REUTERS)
Israel has begun preparing a precise map of the parts of the West Bank it will annex in accordance with the new US peace plan, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Saturday.
“We are in the middle of the process of mapping out the territory that will be part of Israel according to the Trump plan,” Netanyahu said at a Likud event in Ma’aleh Adumim. “It won’t take much time... Within a few weeks, it will happen.”
Ronen Peretz, director-general of the Prime Minister’s Office, will head the Israeli side of the committee, a source in the office said.
An American diplomatic source said: “We are in close conversations with the Netanyahu administration.”
Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump presented his peace plan, by which the US will approve of Israel annexing some 30% of the West Bank, including all settlements and the Jordan Valley, as well as not expanding construction beyond that area, while being ready to recognize a Palestinian state in the rest of the West Bank.
That state would be demilitarized, could no longer pay terrorists a monthly salary and would have to be democratic and provide its citizens with basic civil rights, according to the Trump plan.
Immediately after the plan’s presentation, Netanyahu said he would annex Israeli settlements in the West Bank within a matter of days and the rest of the 30% at a later time. His plan soon changed to a one-step annexation after the March 2 election, in light of comments by special adviser to the US president Jared Kushner that the map included in the Trump plan was a “conceptual” one and that the specific border would have to be delineated by a joint US-Israel committee.
Netanyahu said of the delay: “It’s 800 square kilometers. It’s a lot of land... We’ve been waiting since 1967, and people are making a big deal over a few weeks. It will happen.”
He added that, “Trump will do it: I trust him completely.”
The prime minister’s speech was replete with digs at Blue and White leader Benny Gantz, including that he won’t be able to annex the territory.
The upcoming election is a referendum of sovereignty, Netanyahu said.
The prime minister explained that the peace plan reverses the usual demands, by which “Israel had to agree to concessions like freeing prisoners and freezing construction in communities [in the West Bank], and the Palestinians didn’t have to do anything. Now, it’s the opposite.
“Just to enter negotiations, they have to stop paying terrorists and withdraw their suit in the International Criminal Court,” he stated. “And to complete it, they have to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, give up on the right of return, recognize Israel’s security rights to the west of the Jordan River, demilitarize Gaza, recognize Jerusalem as capital of Israel [and] have a democratic government.”
Netanyahu began his remarks by discussing Israel’s historic connection to the West Bank and its victory in the Six Day War.
“Our great victory brought back parts of the homeland to our hands. We canceled the narrow and dangerous borders that [Israeli diplomat] Abba Eban called ‘Auschwitz borders.’ They moved from the suburbs of Tel Aviv to the protective wall of Judea and Samaria... We returned to the lands of our forefathers,” he said.
“Without our homeland, we don’t have a future. This is our identity; this is our heritage and here is our future,” Netanyahu stated. “Therefore, our enemies are trying to uproot us and take us out of the heart of our homeland... They will not succeed. We are here to stay – forever.”
Netanyahu remarked on the historic change of the Trump administration recognizing Israel’s right to Jerusalem and the West Bank – as opposed to the world, including previous administrations, which did not.
“I’m happy that American policy changed under [Trump’s] courageous leadership, starting with [canceling] the Iran Deal, recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, moving the US embassy, recognizing our sovereignty in the Golan and recognizing the legality of settlements in Judea and Samaria,” he stated.
Netanyahu also said that he withstood American pressure to make concessions that would have endangered Israel.
“I stood up to two US presidents who wanted us to withdraw and concede... I will maintain our place under the sun and I will not give up our homeland,” he said.
“By myself, with my intellect and my heart, I blocked and I stood up to pressures that no prime minister stood up to,” Netanyahu stated. “Thanks to the great support I got from the people of Israel, we blocked the danger.”
Gantz responded to Netanyahu’s speech, saying that “no one remains on the Right who believes your delusions about toppling Hamas and annexing territory.”